[Clinical, radiological and bacteriological study of pulmonary tuberculosis with bacteria showing drug resistance]

The authors have investigated two groups of patients of young age suffering from tuberculosis with germs showing primary resistance to chemotherapeutic agents (61 cases), and with germs displaying sensitivity to these agents (64 cases). The following conclusions have been reached: tuberculosis with germs showing primary drug resistance did not display onset modalities, clinically and radiologically, that differed significantly from other types of tuberculosis; sputum conversion is more slow in patients with resistant germs than in those with sensitive germs in the first two months of treatment, but following application of the treatment according to the data resulting from the antibiogram, this differences quickly disappeared. The presence of a smaller number of complete recoveries and of a surplus of doubtful recoveries can be explained in the same way in this group of patients: the final results are similar in both groups of patients, evidencing that the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis due to germs showing parimary drug resistance does not give rise to particular problems.